ADB Assists in Major Transport Infrastructure Development

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help Solomon Islands upgrade its land, sea, and air transport infrastructure to support economic activities and social service delivery.

The ADB Board of Directors has approved a $12 million grant to partly finance the Transport Sector Development Project which will improve the quality of roads, bridges, interisland shipping services and other transport systems that are crucial for boosting economic growth, creating jobs, and providing people with better access to basic social services such as health and education.

The project is expected to benefit remote rural communities and other vulnerable groups such as women, children, and disabled people.

The project will establish a central project implementation unit within the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development (MID), design and implement civil work throughout the country, and conduct technical and managerial capacity development for MID staff and other groups such as community groups.

The project will focus on transport infrastructure prioritized in the National Transport Plan.

The Transport Sector Development Project is a partnership between the Solomon Islands government and ADB. The project will allow ADB and other development partners to immediately respond to the maintenance needs of Solomon Islands' transport sector.

The project represents a new approach to country-led development, as it sets the stage for a comprehensive sector-based and long-term partnership approach between the government and development partners. It will also draw on the country's sector development coordination, national budget processes, and government systems. This approach will improve country ownership and efficient implementation of all external-funded assistance to the Solomon Islands' transport sector.

The project will be supported by an $800,000 technical assistance for Supporting Transport Sector Development, which is funded by ADB's Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, to advise and train MID in developing and implementing its reform and capacity development plan.

The Transport Sector Development Project will be implemented by the Solomon Islands' MID over the next five years.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members - 48 from the region. In 2009, it approved a total of $16.1 billion in financing operations through loans, grants, guarantees, a trade finance facilitation program, equity investments, and technical assistance projects. ADB also mobilized cofinancing amounting to $3.2 billion.

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